Dallas Puts Police and Fire-Rescue on One Platform: the City Picks Mark43 for Dispatch, Records and Mobile Response
The Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue will run on a single cloud platform — the same dispatch, records and mobile tools for more than 3,100 officers and 2,200 fire and rescue personnel serving 1.3 million residents across 385 square miles.
Dallas is putting its two big public-safety departments on one operating system. The city has selected Mark43 to modernize the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue with an end-to-end platform — Computer-Aided Dispatch, a Records Management System, the OnScene mobile app and Insights analytics — the company announced Friday. The two departments serve more than 1.3 million residents across 385 square miles, with more than 3,100 sworn police officers and 2,200 fire and rescue personnel between them.
"We need technology that works for us, not the other way around," Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said in the announcement. "With Mark43, we are modernizing our mission-critical operating system so we can respond faster, reduce unnecessary administrative work, and deliver more effective, consistent service." Fire-Rescue Chief Justin Ball made the shared-platform case from the fire side: because police and fire will run on the same cloud system, his crews will arrive, in his words, with "accurate, up to date information, including when police will arrive, so they can make faster decisions, coordinate more effectively, and focus on what matters most: protecting lives and property."
The workload argument is in the paperwork. The release says the system's built-in compliance with the national incident-based reporting standard and its streamlined reporting workflows are expected to save officers thousands of hours a year of redundant, manual reporting — time Chief Comeaux said responders can put back into answering calls and getting to scenes faster. Assistant Chief James Russ, who oversees communications for Fire-Rescue, said a common dispatch picture — knowing who is responding and who is already on scene — improves coordination in the moment. Mark43 said it was selected after a comprehensive evaluation and procurement process, with support from Freeit Data Solutions. The announcement does not state a contract price or a go-live date, and this desk prints neither rather than guess.
